italy vacation photos: rome

after sicily, we spent two full days in rome. rome was definitely one of my favorite cities of the trip. it was definitely packed with tourists, but seeing all of the history was unbelievable. it's hard to really grasp the incredible feeling of walking through areas that are thousands of years old. i think it might be because the united states is kind of a young toddler compared to other countries, and the ruins in rome just blew my mind.

when we arrived at the airport, we were picked up by our tour guide alessandro. he had been recommended to us by a friend/travel agent, and he was fantastic! he drove us around to several major spots in the city, and we would have never been able to see everything that we did if we were on foot.  so that was really cool. he kept referencing the movie angel and demons, which was filmed in rome & covered a lot of big sightseeing locations around the city. i watched the movie as soon as i got home and LOVED it, mostly because i recognized all of the locations. i don't know if any of you do this, but i love watching movies filmed in places that i've been. like scenes in the dark knight around chicago, the closing fountain scene of ocean's eleven in vegas, and now i can watch angels and demons and say, "omg! i was standing right there!" please tell me some of you are like this. otherwise my nerd status just hit an all-time high.

here are some photos of what we saw that day:

alessandro kindly showing us around // roman forum // view of rome // outside the pantheon

pantheon // trevi fountain // roman church // roses

the next day was dedicated to exploring vatican city. my family is catholic, so this was a must. we woke up early and went to the vatican museum. we bought tickets ahead of time & avoided the awfully long line, which i would definitely recommend. later that afternoon we went to st. peter's square, and inside the basilica. we also decided to climb the 107 winding stairs of the cupola to view the entire city. at the very top the stairs wind around the dome, and the last set is so narrow that you have to use a hanging rope to keep your balance. that climb was crazy, but it was so worth it. and we earned our gelato for the day.

st. peter's on that stormy morning // laocoon & sons // la pieta // st. peter's basilica

view of rome from the cupola // mailing a postcard at the top // enjoying some drinks afterwards

we were pretty exhausted after that, and decided to see some things later that night. the colosseum being one of them. it was really cool to see it lit up at night, and we spent some time taking photos around the area.

my sister and i had some drinks at a local bar later that night, and the next morning we were off to tuscany. all in all, rome was incredible!

next up in the photo series, tuscany & venice :) check out my sicily post too if you haven't already.

i uploaded a handful of photos (well, 50) to flickr. there will be some overlap with those photos and the ones i share on here, but if you want to check 'em out here's the link.

italy vacation photos: sicily

hey guys, sorry this post/these posts have been a long time coming, it's been a little hard getting back into the routine of things, and blogging has definitely fallen by the wayside. but let's get it started!

a little background on why we visited sicily. maybe we still would have on our own, but a major reason we decided to spend a weekend there was because our family friends were going to be there the same weekend. louie was born in sambuca, and was looking forward to showing us around his hometown. so we flew from chicago to rome, then had a connecting flight to palermo, and drove about an hour to sambuca. we were experiencing some major jet lag, since it's 7 hours ahead of our usual chicago time, but we powered through until the evening. at that point, i think the excitement of being in a new country was helping us out a lot :)

coming from the flat land of illinois, seeing the sicilian landscape of rolling hills was breathtaking! everything was so beautiful!

it was really cool to have our own tour guides in our friends, and their entire family treated us like family, which was so nice. i don't think we would have gotten such an insider/local experience without them. we were able to see some historical sites, we had an authentic home-cooked sicilian meal, and we even had the opportunity to visit a winery while they were having a tasting & offering tours. pretty sweet.

 downtown sambuca // decorations from the festa della madonna di sambuca // ruins

wine tasting

the kelly family with our friends // louie standing outside his childhood home // louie's brother jasper making pizza at his pizza place

it was nice to be in an area of siciliy that wasn't heavily populated with tourists. it did present some language barriers, but it really wasn't bad at all. i would love to go back and spend a full week in samba and some of the neighboring towns. i feel like i can say that about all of the cities that we visited, haha.

i uploaded a handful (well, 50) of photos to flickr a week or so ago. there will be some overlap with those photos and the ones i share on here, but if you want to check 'em out here's the link.

hello hello! i'm back!

selfie in cortona, tuscany ;)

i am back from my italy vacation! actually, i've been back for almost a week, but as soon as i got back i had to fly to florida for work last week. yikes. and the following weekend (last weekend) was pretty packed, so i'm just now getting back into my routine. work is still keeping me really busy, so it might be a few days until i can get all of my photos up here on the blog, but they are all edited! i just have to lay them out and type up the post(s), haha.

i had an amazing time with my family exploring several cities in italy (sambuca, scaccia, palermo, rome, cortona, siena, montepulciano, venice, murano & burano). it was a trip of a lifetime, and i really hope i can go back someday!

hope you all have been well these past couple weeks! i will be back soon! xoxo

i'm still here!

man, so i really thought i'd be able to get in a few posts before this weekend, but that obviously didn't happen :/ work was super busy for these last few weeks, and chester & i had so many weekend plans it was almost overwhelming (but totally fun of course). we attended a handful of craft beer events around the chicago area, joined my sister and he bf in indiana for dark lord day, and celebrated my birthday last weekend (i am officially in the last year of my 20s... whoa).

dark lord day // birthday drinks at the aviary // goose island 25th anniversary block party

i had such a blast for my birthday. i am somehow always blessed with gorgeous weather, which is not anything to rely on in the midwest. chester, my family & my friends made sure the whole weekend was so fun! i'm a lucky, lucky girl :)

tomorrow my family and i leave for our 12 day italy vacation!!!! i spent the majority of last night packing & washing the last bit of clothing i wanted to bring. i'm only doing carry-on luggage, so that has presented quite the challenge, but i've figured it all out and it will definitely be easier when i'm there. i keep reminding myself that i will wash and re-wear some outfits, so that eliminated a lot of bulk off the bat. i was hoping to do a few "what i'm packing" posts before i left, but maybe it will be better to do those when i get back. i mean, i obviously don't have the time to do them now, but at least i can say what i really needed and what i really didn't need. i always love reading those posts around the web. they always help me out.

i will have limited internet access while i'm gone, so i won't be back at this blog until i get back in early june. i will take a TON of photos, and i will share them here as soon as i can! otherwise, be sure to follow me on instagram :)

i hope you all have a wonderful memorial day weekend! xoxo